4 In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the
point of shedding your blood. 5 And have you forgotten the exhortation
which addresses you as sons? ñ
"My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,
nor lose courage when you are rebuked by him.
6 For those whom the Lord loves he disciplines,
and he scourges every son whom he receives."
7 It is for discipline that you endure. God is treating you as sons; for what
son is there whom his father does not discipline? 8 If you are left without
discipline, in which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate
children and not sons. 9 Besides this, we have had fathers of our flesh to
discipline us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject
to the Father of spirits and live? 10 For they disciplined us for a short
time as seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we
may share his holiness. 11 For the moment all discipline seems painful
rather than pleasant; but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness
to those who have been trained by it.
12 Therefore lift your feeble hands and strengthen your weak
knees, 13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may
not be put out of joint, but rather be healed.
14 Strive for peace with all men, and for the holiness without
which no one will see the Lord. 15 See to it that no one comes short of
the grace of God; that no root of bitterness spring up and cause trouble,
and by it many become defiled; 16 that no one be immoral or godless like
Esau, who sold his own birthright for a single meal. 17 For you know that
afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he
found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears.
18 For you have not come to a mountain that can be touched and
to a blazing fire, and to darkness and gloom and whirlwind, 19 and the
blast of a trumpet, and the sound of a voice whose words made the hearers
beg that no further word be spoken to them. 20 For they could not endure
the order that was given, "If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be
stoned." 21 The sight was so terrifying that Moses said, "I am trembling
with fear." 22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the
living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, to the joyful
assembly 23 and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and
to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of righteous men made perfect,
24 and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled
blood that speaks better than the blood of Abel.
25 See to it that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if
they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth,
how much less shall we escape, if we turn away from him who warns us
from heaven? 26 Then his voice shook the earth, but now he has
promised, "Yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also
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